1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle sharing system for allowing a plurality of users to share vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, automobiles play an important role as an indispensable means for allowing people to move in and beyond local areas, and the number of automobiles being used keeps growing. The increasing number of automobiles being used not only causes serious traffic jams, but also demands more and more parking spaces. For example, medium-size cities in the outskirts of larger cities need parking spaces near stations for automobiles that are used by people who take commuter trains. However, automobiles in such parking spaces remain parked in the daytime, and are usually driven in and out of the parking lots early morning and evening for taking commuter trains and going home.
In view of such a wasteful way of using automobiles, there has been a demand for a system which allows users to rent automobiles only when necessary. In the presently available automobile rental system, a user fills out an application paper at an automobile rental company to rent an automobile, receives the key of the automobile, uses it for a desired period of time, and finally returns the automobile to the automobile rental company. This automobile rental system allows users to use automobiles only when necessary though the process to apply for the renting of automobiles is somewhat complex.
Efforts are currently being made to develop electric vehicles which are less harmful in terms of air pollution and noise than automobiles which run on fossil fuels such as gasoline, though the electric vehicles are still more expensive than the present automobiles. If electric vehicles can be shared by a plurality of users, then such a sharing system is highly economical and produces other advantages including protection against air pollution and noise.
There is a demand for a system which allows a plurality of users to share vehicles easily. However, no matter how easy such a system may be to allow users to share vehicles, it is necessary for a user to enter settings about a vehicle which the user has selected.
Specifically, the driver""s seat of the selected vehicle is associated with various instruments and devices for out-putting information that is used to assist in driving the vehicle. For example, one of the devices is known as a navigation system for displaying map information to guide the vehicle to a destination. Some navigation systems have a display unit for displaying running states of the vehicle and states of an air-conditioning system, a stereo set (radio set), etc. Users of vehicles in the sharing system are not limited to people who speak Japanese, but may be people who speak various different languages including English, German, and French. Therefore, it is necessary for a user to change a setting for the display on the above vehicle-mounted devices depending on the language used by the user. Such a setting change poses a burden on the user, and may not possibly be made if the user is unaware of the proper process of making a setting change.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a vehicle sharing system which is capable of automatically setting a language to be used in information output means on devices in a vehicle to be used by a user, depending on the language used by the user.
A major object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle sharing system which is capable of automatically setting a language to be used depending on the process performed by a user to rent a vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle sharing system which is capable of setting a language to be used on the basis of information from information holding means which holds information as to a user.